Toilet cases



Jan. 10, 1956 s. MiLLER ETAL TOILET CASES Filed April 29, 1955 INVENTORS BY fi li n WMMM United States Patent TOILET CASES George Miller, Wellesley, and Emil K. Renz, Dedham,

Mass., assignors to Knight Leather Products, Inc., Boston, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application April 29, 1953, Serial No. 351,826

4 Claims. (Cl. 150-34) The present invention relates to an improvement in toilet case construction made of flexible, yielding material, and more particularly to a further improvement of the toilet case construction described in our prior application Serial No. 267,966, filed January 24, 1952, issued June 2, 1953, as Patent No. 2,640,520.

The object of the present invention is to provide a case in which the cover when unlatched will automatically open and hold its open position.

It is further an object of the present invention to provide a toilet case in which the rear wall member to which the cover is fixed will not fall inwardly when the case is in an opened position.

It is further an object of this invention to provide a toilet case of inexpensive construction with a torsional spring which serves to outwardly tension both the flexible cover and rear wall member whereby the cover and rear wall are inclined slightly outward when the case is resting on its base in an open position.

Further, in this invention the side wall, rear wall and front wall members are sufficiently flexible to permit the cover and the front wall member to be moved together when closing the cover from its outwardly inclined open position.

These objects of the present invention are obtained without rigidly reinforcing the wall members, by including in the construction a torsional spring in the rear wall having leg members extending into the cover and also into the bottom of the case.

The present invention will be more fully described in the specification set forth below when taken in connection with the drawings, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a fragmentary perspective view of the case.

Figure 2 is a section taken substantially along lines 22 of Figure 1, and

Figure 3 is a plan view of the modification of a detail of the present invention.

As illustrated in the drawings, the inner and outer surfaces of the bottom, cover, sidewalls, front wall and rear wall are covered with a soft, flexible material, preferably with a leather, textile, plastic or composition on the outside, and a somewhat softer leather plastic or similar material on the inside.

As will be noted in the present construction, the cover 1 is hinged to and is continuous with the rear wall 2. The sidewall members 3 and 4 and the front wall member 5 are continuous with the rear wall, together forming the wall members around the bottom 6 of the case.

A stiff cardboard or some other somewhat flexible and somewhat yielding reinforcing member 35 extends from the cover to the bottom having sections 8, 9 and 10, respectively in the cover, rear wall and bottom. These sections are separated by transverse slots 11 and 12, positioned respectively at the hinge between the cover and the rear wall and at the edge formed by the rear wall and bottom. The narrow side strips 13 formed by the slot 11 ice thereby act as a hinge between sections 8 and 9, while section 10 is held to section 9 by the strips 14.

On the outside of this reinforcing member 35, is secured by staples or other suitable means, a spring means comprising two torsional springs 15 and 16 extending substantially the length of the three sections.

The upper and lower portions 17 and 18 of the spring 15 are secured respectively to sections 8 and 10 at the same side edge 19, while the central portion 20 is secured to section 9 at the opposite side edge 21. The transverse section 22 of the spring joining the upper end of the central portion 20 and the lower end of the upper portion 17 is positioned substantially in alignment with the slot 11, while the transverse section 23 of the spring joining the lower end of the central portion 20 and the upper end of the lower portion 13 is positioned substantially in alignment with the slot 12. The spring 16 has its upper, lower and central portions 24, 25 and 26, secured to the reinforcing member 35 in positions near the side edges opposite the corresponding portions of spring 15. The transverse sections 27 and 28 of the spring 16 respectively joining the lower end of the upper portion to the upper end of the central portion and the lower end of the central portion to the upper end of the lower portion, are positioned respectively in parallel alignment with slots 11 and 12. The tension of these torsional springs will normally tension the cover toward an open position and will in addition tension the rear wall outwardly from the center of the case. When the cover is closed, the rear wall may be bent inwardly against the tensioning of the springs to permit the cover to be fastened to the front wall. These springs 15 and 16 are preferably secured to the reinforcing member 35 by staples 59 which permit sliding movement of the springs with relation to the reinforcing member 35 when the cover is opened and closed.

The reinforcing member 35 is secured in the case with the spring members facing the outside covering 23 and 30 respectively of the cover and rear wall. A covering member 31 over the inside surface of the reinforcing member extends from the cover to the bottom of the case and is stitched to the outer coverings 29 and 30 of the cover and rear wall by the stitching 32 and to the outer covering 34 of the bottom by the stitching 36. The section of the covering member'31 over the rear wall is also secured through the rear wall to the outer covering 30 by longitudinal stitching 32' aligned with the side edges of the reinforcing member 35.

An inner covering member 37, preferably of the same material as the covering member 31 is stitched to the side and front walls by stitching 38 and 39. Additional reinforcement of the cover is provided by the member 40, preferably secured by gluing and the stitching 32. The bottom is also reinforced by a member 41 secured over the section 10 of the member 35 by the stitching 36 and 39 A slide fastener is provided with one stringer 42 secured between the covering 37 and the outer walls of the sides and front of the stitching 38, while the other stringer 42' is secured to the cover by the stitching 32.

Inside of the cover may be secured by gluing or other suitable means, a covered insert 43 having a binding 44 around its periphery, and a pocket 45 formed on its inside face. Similarly a covered insert 46 having a peripheral binding 47 may be secured to the bottom.

There is illustrated in Figure 3, a plan view of a modification of the torsional spring elements which are secured to the reinforcing member 35 shown in dotted outline. In this modification the two torsional springs 43 and 49 secured by staples 50 or other suitable means have their upper and lower ends 51, 52, 53 and 54 secured re- 3. spectively neartopposite edges of the reinforcing member 35. The parallel center portions 55 and 56 of the two torsional springs are secured longitudinally of the central section near its center.

The transverse sections 57 of the spring joining the upper end of the springs to the center portions are parallel with and opposite the slot 11 in the reinforcing member, while the lower end is joined to the central portion by the transverse sections 58 of the springs parallel and opposite the slot 12.

Having now described our invention, we claim:

1. A travelling case having a rear wall, bottom and a cover, means flexibly securing said cover to said rear wall, a hingeable reinforcing member comprising an upper section secured in the cover, a central section secured in the rear wall and a lower section secured in the bottom, and a plurality of torsional springs secured to said reinforcing member, each having an upper, lower and central non-torque section positioned respectively in the cover, bottom and rear Wall of the case with each of said central non-torque sections joined to the upper and lower sections of its respective spring by transverse torque spring sections positioned respectively between the cover and rear wall and between the rear wall and bottom.

2. A travelling case having a rear wall, bottom and a cover, means flexibly securing said cover to said rear wall, a hingeable reinforcing member comprising an upper section secured in the cover, a central section secured in the rear wall and a lower section secured in the bottom, with transverse slots between adjacent sections of said reinforcing member, and a plurality of torsional springs secured to said reinforcing member, each having an upper, lower and central non-torque section positioned respectively in the cover bottom and rear wall of the case with each of said central non-torque sections joined to the upper and lower sections of its respective spring by trans- Y verse torque spring sections positioned in alignment with said transverse slots.

3. A travelling case having a bottom wall, flexible continuous surrounding side, front and rear walls and a cover having dependent edges adapted to engage with similar edges of the side, front and rear walls for closing the case, flexible means connecting said rear wall to said cover along at least a portion of one side of said cover, and torsional spring means having one end portion fixed in said bottom, a second portion fixed in the rear wall and a third portion fixed in said cover with intermediate portions, one positioned between the bottom and the rear walls and one positioned in between said flexible means, whereby the rear wall and cover in the region of said flexible means tend to be strained when the cover is in an open position.

4. A travelling case having a bottom wall, surrounding side, front and rear Walls and a cover wall having edges forming a closing fit to the top of said side, front and rear walls, a flexible connecting strip joining the cover wall along one edge to the rear wall, torsional spring means comprising a pair of springs each having end elements and a central element with free torque elements connecting the ends of the central element with end elements, means securing said end elements respectively in the bottom and cover of said case, means securing the central element in the rear wall of said case, said torque elements positioned in the line of junction of the bottom and rear wall and the rear wall and cover respectively of said case.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,191,557 Cline Feb. 27, 1940 2,564,570 Hatfield Aug. 14, 1951 2,640,520 Miller et a1. June 2, 1953 

